In a conventional process of producing wearable articles such as disposable diapers that include an absorber capable of absorbing liquid, the absorber, i.e. an object of transportation, is transported and joined onto a surface of a sheet constituting a waist section of the wearable article.
A device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is known as an example of the device for transporting the absorber to the sheet surface, for example.
Specifically, the device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 includes a first roller for holding an absorber on a circumferential surface thereof, a second roller (roller mechanism) for guiding a sheet (third web) in a horizontal direction, and a third roller (rotary drum) for receiving the absorber from the first roller at a predetermined receiving position, the first roller being in the form of a cylinder rotatable about a predetermined axis, and delivering the absorber to the sheet being guided by the second roller at a predetermined delivery position. The third roller includes a holding pad (suction pad) for holding the absorber, and a turning mechanism for turning the holding pad through 90 degrees in the course of movement from the receiving position to the delivery position. The holding pad has an outer surface having such a shape that the central portion thereof bulges radially outward of the third roller.
In the device disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the central portion of the outer surface of the holding pad of the third roller bulges radially outward of the third roller, i.e. toward the first roller, whereas the circumferential surface of the first roller is simply in the form of a cylindrical surface. Therefore, there is a problem that the absorber held on the circumferential surface of the first roller could not be brought into close contact with the circumferential surface of the second roller, and thus the object such as the absorber could not be appropriately transported.